Across The Worlds
by shatteredstar21
Summary: Harry outlived his family; his friends, he outlived magic and his world, what is he goig to do about that?
1. Chapter 1

I own nothing save my all-consuming insanity… is this one worth continuing?

Chapter One

The young yet ancient face held a look of bone deep weariness as it looked out across the world. A sigh rippled out from behind him. "So, now you know… only you would have the power to create a spell that would allow you to go back and learn everything from over ten millennia ago. Was the knowledge so horrible that you will truly leave me alone in this world? You are all I have left."

The man turned from the window he was gazing through, "you were right back then, I did choose the wrong side, and my choices led to _this." _he gestured through the window for the other to look. The other man sighed and rolled to the window. The muggles had indeed made vast advancements in the last 10,000 years; of course they had had to, to survive their own destruction of this planet. The earth could no longer sustain life; the humans were arranging to leave the planet they had shuttles preparing to launch as they spoke. These two men were the last two who even remembered magic… a mere 300 years after Voldemort's fall the humans had discovered and announced magic to the world. It had taken them only 15 years to wipe out the magical populace… even the creatures.

The man in the hover chair sighed, while gazing at the twisted steel buildings, the putrescent green and yellow sky… and then turned to his companion "As you wish; I will set up the ritual… but know this, if you cannot change anything, don't leave me alone, just because you are incapable of dying now, does not mean that is so when you return there, remember that… for me."

The other man gazed at him soberly and whispered "though you are not one of my soul mates you are and always will be the brother of my heart, it is not just for myself that I will change what has happened, I will attempt to give you your chance at life with your soul-mate." Abruptly he turned from his companion and assumed a business like demeanor. "When shall we set my arrival date for? It will take me about three years to gain full control, and we will need to have time before schooling for me to set up the required incidents." He continued to calmly gaze out the window… suddenly feeling lost and alone.

The other sat in silence for a moment knowing his friend needed the time to collect himself. "I recommend that you phrase it so that the magic will choose for you, they have been truly unhappy with this world for a while and will send you to the optimal time for your placement. I would recommend saying it as 'return me to the beginning'." The two men looked at each other each achingly aware that this may well not work and they may be each left alone in this existence… again. Then they turned and got to work. As one man strode to the center of the diagram they had left on the floor the other watched on, listening to the chanting as his partner came to a crescendo, the man lifted his wand and whispered "Avada Kedavra" smiling softly as their eyes met for one last time… and his last allies body his the floor. "Good luck my brother" was the last thing they heard before a magnificent silver pillar raised around the body and suddenly both disappeared.

The two men found themselves standing (wait standing?) in front of three large orbs that pulsated gently sending out an unbelievable aura. The men found themselves staring at the orbs and then realized what they were seeing. One man fell to his knees as the other gave an inclination of his head. The orbs seemed to take this as some sort of signal and started to circle around them. As they did so it seemed as though all three spoke as one.

"Chaostri, Lord of life, we had wondered if you would come - or if you would let all fade from existence - now that you are finally here - we have much to tell you - you will be sent to the beginning of this farce and left to your own devices, however there is a price – your companion's soul will be joining you, but you alone will bear the duty, he will not remember anything at all of this timeline. You will start over again with no allies. Your power is yours, however much of it will be bound until your body is again prepared for it. You will have to grow up again and no potion or spell will allow you to cheat on the matter. Your mistake was in the calculation of how long until you can use your powers. There is very little that we can do to help you, our advice is to accept unexpected help, even if you have to create it. Know that once you have finished your missions there you will be sent elsewhere, you will be too powerful to leave there on earth. Good luck chosen one, may your future be better than your past."

The two men looked at each other again, feeling a great sorrow, and allowed themselves to be swallowed by the magic, then felt themselves falling, as all whirled into blackness.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

As the chosen one felt himself slowly swim up from unconsciousness, he could not help but wonder why he felt so weak. Opening his eyes he came to a horrified understanding, as a green light shot for his face… there stood the last person he expected to ever see, Lord Voldemort, and then he found himself swept up in pain, and the world again went dark.

This time when he awoke, it was to a horse-faced woman screaming for Vernon, and in his head the 10,000 year old lord could not help but sigh in sorrow… "Here we go again"

XXXX

The boy known as Harry potter was not one who was loved by his family, in fact they made it quite clear that they hated his very existence. From the age of three he was forced to clean the house weed the garden, and with the use of a tall kitchen stool, he was required to cook for his "family". That had happened before, as had the beatings he received, though he had forgotten the intensity of the pain they caused him, not in the physical sense but the emotional. Within 10,000 years of life he had learned to disregard physical pain. During this time Harry did not have complete control over himself, he was like an observer, watching as he grew, felt the pain of being hit, burned… he even felt the pain of his sixth birthday when his uncle decided that he was old enough to pay for his… upkeep… in a new fashion.

He had woken up early that day, despite having kept his tradition of staying up till midnight to blow out the dust candles, and having awoken he decided to get an early start on his chores. He walked out of his cupboard which was for once unlocked, and went into the kitchen to start his families breakfast, unfortunately as he was reaching for the carton of eggs, Dudley came stumbling down the stairs, muttering about "scaring the freak" and when he saw that the boy was not in his cupboard, went into the kitchen, when he saw Harry in the fridge he started screaming for his father. "Dad, dad, the freak's stealing food".

Vernon hearing his son yelling for him, and believing that the Boy must have done something to him, started charging down the stairs. 'That little monster had better not have done anything to Dudders, or he will regret it' he snarled to himself. When he got to the bottom of the stairs he saw Harry indeed in the fridge, holding food. Enraged Vernon charged the boy and smacked him upside the face hard enough that Harry flew backwards into the fridge, causing the shelf to come down, and pouring food all over the floor. "How dare you, you ungrateful little brat!" he roared. As he looked down on Harry's small body, less than half the size of his son's, wide watery green eyes looking up at him in pain, Vernon had a sudden stirring in his groin and made what for him had to be a ridiculously swift decision.

"Dudley, get your mother you two are going out to breakfast while I make sure this little tramp learns his lesson about stealing food from his betters." Dudley grinned, and ran upstairs calling for his mother, who had just finished getting dressed after hearing the commotion from below stairs. She listened with a doting smile upon her face to her son, grabbed her purse and walked to the kitchen, she smiled at her husband and asked him what he wanted her to bring back for him, he replied to bring him back a great big meal, whatever looked the best that the restaurant had, she smiled again and started to turn away, then out of the corner of her eye she saw her nephew in the mess that surrounded him, and shrieked at him "filthy boy, you get up and clean that mess this instant, you horrible little freak, how dare you ruin my kitchen. If this is not clean by the time I get back, you'll be stuck in the cupboard for a week, do you understand!"

The boy looked up at her dazedly and nodded, petunia shuddered and looked away from the boy; it was truly disturbing to her how the boy never spoke, never made a single sound… it was eerie, and it caused even more hatred to pour into her heart to have to house this waste of flesh in the same house as her precious family. With these words she turned and swept her son away with her and headed out the door to a local restaurant.

Vernon watched his wife tell off the boy with a gleam of pride in his eye, and as soon as she left, he turned on the small boy, grabbing him by the collar and dragging him upstairs. "Before you clean up your mess you will take a shower, and I am going to make sure you do this right, since you can't do anything else right." Vernon stated, Harry just looked up at him and suddenly the memory of this day came back to him, his eyes widened and he swiftly tried to dart out the door past his obese uncle, unfortunately, he wasn't in any kind of shape to get past him, and only managed to enrage his uncle more.

As he tried to pass him he was struck again by his uncle, who quickly grabbed his wrists, and tore his too large clothing from his tiny body, he slammed the small boy against the wall of the shower, holding him easily with one hand while the other removed his pants, he watched with delight as the boy's eyes widened even more with terror, and felt his lust rise even more, he took a second while he spread a large quantity of his wife's lotion over his cock, to look at the beautiful boy in front of him. Harry was a sight to behold, pure flawlessly porcelain white skin that not even the silver scars seemed to mar, verdant emerald green eyes, and the most delicate of pink lips. Then having finally looked his fill of the boy he reached out and grabbed the boy's hips, and slammed himself into the tight body… for the first time in years, Vernon heard the boy make a noise, as he shrieked and passed out in his grasp. Vernon quickly came to his climax, and dropped the bleeding boy in the tub, stepped out and turned on the shower with cold water. The boy woke to that moaning lightly from the pain. Vernon who was enjoying those little noises, and was looking forward to hearing them again, barked out "get dressed, little rat and go clean up that kitchen, afterward go into your cupboard and stay there." With that he went back to his room to enjoy the afterglow of his release. An hour later, Petunia and Dudley arrived back home, and walked onto the house, Harry, still in considerable pain from his uncle was just finishing the kitchen. Petunia saw him still in the kitchen and was enraged, 'what has the little troll been doing while I was gone?' enraged at his "laziness" she grabbed him by the collar and threw him into his cupboard, exclaiming "you will be in there for a week, and don't expect to be fed you wasted far too much food for us to give _you_ any!" The days and weeks went by, with his uncle continuously raping Harry, however, on his seventh birthday, he finally finished reconnecting with his body and all that changed.

XXXX

He was sore when he woke that morning, but almost immediately he could tell that something was different. While he was trying to figure out what had happened he smelled something that seemed familiar. He quickly glanced around his little cupboard, for some reason it seemed slightly larger than it had just the day before. But as he glanced around he could find nothing that would explain that smell, he could smell his blood of course, but underneath the smell of his blood and his uncle's cum, there was a smell that reminded Harry of ripe raspberries in the summer sun, and as he glanced around, he still could not locate the smell. It was as he was searching for that elusive scent that he realized the cupboard truly did seem larger than the night before, but he could not fathom a reason this should be so. While he sat there pondering reasons that it could be so, and while still looking for that wonderful scent he was interrupted by his aunt unlocking the padlock's on his door and then banging on it to wake him up, yelling out "get up freak, duddy needs his breakfast, so get out here and make it you lazy little slime!"

Harry got up feeling strange, but silently went into the kitchen, and started to prepare the meal for them. It was as he was pulling out the bacon that he realized he didn't feel detached from this chore anymore, it wasn't an ethereal motion; that he realized… he could feel his magic again. Harry stopped what he was doing, and he grinned wildly as he looked over at his "family" and then he simply waved his hand, at them, they looked over at him and he spoke the first words they had ever heard out of him. "Well, why don't we make a little deal between ourselves, shall we" he gave them a chilling little smile, and glinting between his slender lips were…Fangs!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Harry walked down the road towards the leaky cauldron, he couldn't believe how easy that had been, and he was actually surprised that it had been as painless as it was. At this point he couldn't help turning to look behind him; nor could he help the giggle that popped from his mouth at seeing uncle Vernon and aunt petunia cringe away from his gaze. He stood there for a few moments waiting for them to catch up to him giving them an impatient look. 'Will you hurry up already" he growled at them, "if you want to be rid of me, you'd better get a move on or they'll close and we'll have to come again tomorrow" at that they picked up speed and caught up with him. They both jerked in shock when he reached up and grabbed one of each of their hands, "You can't see it but it's right through here, now remember to keep your mouths shut or you may get killed, insulting these people is not at all intelligent. They get rather testy." With that he led the two straight through the door of the leaky cauldron and led them through to the bar. When he finally reached it, he lifted up onto his tippy toes and asked "Tom, could you let us through to Diagon alley? We need to get dad a new wand, his got broke." Tom looked over the bar at the apparently 4 year old boy, and smiled broadly, "be glad to m'boy, by the way, what is your name?"

Harry grinned as he replied "I'm Chaostri" and then followed Tom to the door, and smiled at him again as he led his aunt and uncle through towards Gringotts Bank. He loved the constipated expressions that were at this point pretty much glued onto their faces. When he finally got into the bank he dragged them over to the front station of the head goblin. Harry looked up at the imposing looking goblin and said "_Excuse me, but could we arrange to meet with manager Ragnarock please?_" The chief goblin looked glanced down in shock at the positively tiny human in front of him who dared to request a meeting with the head of the goblin clans of England… and stranger yet, he did this in gobbledygook!

Shaking off his shock the goblin sneered down at him, and demanded "who are you to demand an audience with Ragnarock?" the boy responded "_I am Chaostri the betrayed, Lord of Life, last of the Chaos beasts. I come seeking the aid of the goblins._" The chief floor goblin met the eyes of the small boy, and decided that he would allow the boy a chance to meet the Elder Ragnarock. After all if the boy was who and what he said he was then he didn't want to be the one to get in his way. He stepped down from his podium and gestured for the boy and his escorts to follow him, and led them to an office deep in the core of Gringotts.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The elder was there doing paperwork, and when he heard his door open he glanced up to see who was there, expecting to be interrupted for some minor inconvenience. Looking at the body language of the goblin who entered, and the boy who followed and was followed by two cowed looking human adults, he had to rule that option out. "_What is this?"_ he asked the goblin. The goblin glanced away and then stated "_the young human claims to be the last of the chaos beasts and that he is here to request our aid."_ The Elder glanced at the small human and was surprised to see the boy looking directly at him, having obviously followed the conversation. Switching into English, the Elder solemnly questioned the boy. "Are you aware of the repercussions of what you claim? And that if you fail the test we will kill you?" the boy smiled at him "I know, elder Ragnarok, however, perhaps I should introduce myself. I am Chaostri the betrayed, lord of life, and the last of the Chaos beasts in this realm." The elder looked upon the boy and couldn't help but feel that he spoke the truth… however there was protocol to follow in matters such as these.

"Please follow me into the next room where we can be more comfortable while the test is performed." Chaostri as he called himself nodded, then casually mentioned. "By the way, after the verification test is completed, I will need to be tested for magical affinities with the eggs." Ragnarok sent a sharp glance at the boy, even if he survived the first test he wasn't likely to survive the second, Chaos beasts generally didn't get along so well with the other creatures when it came to symbiosis.

They came to a large plush room and the goblin ushered the humans in; he couldn't help but notice that the adult humans looked quite unpleasant, they continued to throw glares between himself and the boy… but what disturbed the goblin most was that the male adult kept staring at the boy with hints of lust in his eyes. It made the goblin shudder and hope that he was misinterpreting the gaze.

Now that he had the adults settled on a plush couch at the far end of the room, he sent the chief floor goblin to get the required tools for the upcoming tests… and the required guards; after all if he failed he _would_ die. The boy stood in front of him, patiently waiting, but Ragnarok noticed that the adult male was pacing frenetically; his paces were becoming more erratic as he moved, and his face was turning an unpleasant puce color. Three goblins carrying cushions with various items upon them came in surrounded by six guards. This appeared to be the breaking point for the adult male, and he charged Ragnarok with his fist leading; the attack on the elder shocked the other goblins into stillness.

Luckily, Harry was not shocked, he was not however pleased, and he made it show. With a swift flick of his wrist he sent the hugely obese man flying into the far wall, hard enough to knock him unconscious, and indeed had the man not been so fat there may well have been serious damage. The goblin guards quickly ran forward with their pikes aimed at the adult humans and ushered them into a corner where they were held at the point of their weapons.

Ragnarok smiled, this was another point towards the boys claim, and he could not help but be impressed; that this boy who looked to be about five years old would perform such a feat of magic without a word or even a wand was amazing. Taking a breath he stepped forward and started the tradition of the test, ushering the first two cushion-carrying goblins forward. "You have laid claim to the name of the Chaos Beasts, in order to offer you the chance to prove this and win our aid in your endeavors we will offer you a choice. You may choose the method of determining your truth; you swallow the serum of truths, or be judged by the dagger of lies. Which shall you choose?" the boy smiled "I shall allow myself to be judged by the blade of lies." The goblins surrounding them could not help feeling slightly impressed with this boys courage. The serum of truth would only compel him to speak truth, however the blade would plunge itself into his heart if he spoke any falsehood. The blade glowed softly as it lifted itself from its cushion and set itself to the small boy's heart; he didn't even flinch.

The elder of the goblins found his estimation of the boy raising several notches for the way he had handled himself up to this point, and he was looking forward to seeing how he answered his questions. "What is your name?" Chaostri, Lord of Life, born Harold James Evans Potter." There were murmurs of surprise from many of the goblins; they had not noticed his scar until he told them his name. "Are you a Chaos Beast?" "I am the last Chaos Beast in this Realm." There were far fewer murmurs, though a few goblin faces showed a deep heart felt grief. "What was your purpose for coming to this bank today?" "I need to be unbound from my magical bonds, I need access to my vaults, I need to be emancipated, and I need to be tested for magical affinity to the eggs." "To our knowledge, each Chaos Beast is given a quest they must fulfill, what is your quest?" "My quest is to save the earth, it has been seen that if we allow things to continue at the pace they are going now, the muggles shall destroy the magical world, and without our magic to balance out their polluting science they will kill our mother, the earth. My secondary quest is to destroy the dark lord Dumbledore."

The goblins had listened intently nodding all the while as his first objective was explained, but they looked shocked about his second objective; however they couldn't deny what he said as the dagger didn't so much as waver from over his heart. "Why is Dumbledore classed as a dark lord?"

"He has betrayed the trusts of nearly all who looked to him for guidance, he has called for the better treatment of 'creatures' such as the goblin, werewolves, vampires, and many others; however while he was gaining these groups' trust, he was setting up a network in the ministry that was cutting more and more into the rights of these very beings. He discovered a young Chaos Beast, and ignoring his duty to protect this being, he bound its magic and sent it to live in a highly abusive home. He has manipulated hundreds of people, going so far as to create false prophecies so as to get them to dance to his tune, and has twisted the minds of many so that he will have a great 'evil' to fight against so that he will always appear the hero."

A few of the goblins were looking rather ill at this point. The extents of the truths revealed this day were not at all comforting. "Please tell us why you consider your home to be abusive." This was more of a statement but the boy still answered, though he now wore a mask that refused to allow entrance to his emotions.

"I have been forced into manual labor since the age of three, and sexual acts for the last year, I have been beaten repeatedly since I was first left with them, and my 'uncle' was teaching his son how to sexually molest me and that it was okay to beat me, what makes it even worse is that Dumbledore is using the money in my vaults to pay them for treating me in that fashion." Here there was a great uproar… children were truly rare amongst the magical creatures of this world. Every child was a sacred trust; to abuse one was a death sentence by torture. Any faith at all that might have been held in trust for Dumbledore fell apart in that instant. Quite a few gazes turned towards the boys 'relative' in the corner, wanting nothing more than to tear them apart.

"What are your plans for when you have completed your objectives?" this brought every goblin to sharp attention; this was something that they all desperately wished to know. "I have been informed that upon the completion of my quest I will no longer be allowed to stay here, I will be sent away by magical means." The goblins felt a wrench of despair in their hearts. The cb were truly rare magical creatures, they restored balance of the earth, and to know that the last of its kind would be leaving them was something of the nightmares of every magical creature.

Ragnarok made a few arcane gestures, and the dagger of lies slowly settled itself back upon its cushion and went back into its dormant state. The guards took this to mean that they were no longer needed, and stared for a moment at the two humans still huddled in their corner while glaring out at the occupants of the room before they looked to the elder for some idea of what they were supposed to do with the creatures. The elder in turn deferred to the cb, asking him what he would like to have them do with them.

The boy responded in gobbledygook "_we will need to perform the auraar descant spell near the end of this day, they can be a meal at that point; however for now I need to make a deal with them as they are registered as my guardians in both the magical and muggle worlds; I need to be emancipated."_

The goblins around him looked at him in deep respect. This boy had thought things through; had overcome emotion to improve his lot in life. Elder Ragnarok swiftly sent one of the gobbling to get the emancipation papers for both worlds. He was back in mere moments with two folders in his hands. Harry turned to the two humans and in his rather husky voice made them an offer "if you two sign theses papers I will authorize half a million pounds to be wired to your account, and neither of you need to bother with my care ever again." Vernon started to sneer at him, but Petunia was tired of all of the stress in her life, so she stepped forward and accepted his offer, swiftly signing the papers, and nagging Vernon into also doing so.

The second both sets were signed they disappeared, already approved by the goblins of Gringotts, to their respective points of interest. A few moments later the goblin guard ushered the muggles into a cell at spear point; of course, they protested all the way. At this point Ragnarok led Chaostri to table where the goblin that had been patiently holding the third cushion all this time set a white gold chalice ornately decorated with creatures from legend onto the center of the table. "Three drops of blood please, young lord." He swiftly brought his index finger to his fang and dropped the required blood into it. The last time he had done this, he had received two eggs, signified by a silver green and bruise purple clouds; so imagine his surprise when five clouds appeared before him.

A cushion came floating into the room carrying five eggs and settled on the table in front of him. He took a deep breath and allowed his power to familiarize itself with the eggs, and then he lowered all of his defenses and poured his power out to the eggs. They started to thrum with power and lifted themselves to float lazily around their chosen one. After a moment they seemed to have figured out where they belonged, and they forced themselves into his flesh.

Where each egg disappeared a tattoo rose on his flesh, each beautiful in their own right. The first egg burrowed itself into the flesh between his shoulder blades, a tattoo that showed the vaguest outline of a rose that was shedding feathers in place of petals appeared in a silver green that was delicate in hue… in truth it was all but lost against the silver scars that covered his back.

The next egg burrowed into his left shoulder, appearing as a stylized black flame with an aurora of bruise purple surrounding it.

The third buried itself just above his left hip, where a silver blue teardrop surrounding an opalescent pearl showed itself.

The fourth showed itself upon his right wrist as a bracelet of long sharp fangs.

The final egg poured itself into his right ankle where it showed itself as a stylized curlicue that wrapped around the ankle with a number of differently sized orbs hovering above it.

When the eggs had finally settled in Chaostri turned to Ragnarok and asked him how soon the requirements could be met for the ritual. Ragnarok simply asked him when he would have the names of those he wished to be his witnesses, and those he wished to be his sacrifices. He smiled and wrote a short list; "these are the sacrifices. I think for the witnesses I would like to have Lord Lucius Malfoy, Lady Aurelia Zabini, and Lord Evan Rosier." Ragnarok was slightly concerned by the boy's choices, Malfoy wasn't so bad, but Zabini was known for killing her mates, and Rosier was walking more on the path of insanity than any where else. However, if they accepted the responsibility that came with the honor they were granted, then there were no better choices as guardians. He gave an abrupt nod and left to send the necessary owls.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Finally." He groaned as he settled into his chair with a glass of brandy. "I was beginning to think I would never escape the fool." He had finally managed to escape the grasping presence of the minister of magic. His mood had been bad enough that he was actually grateful that his wife and son were in Paris, spending his money. He was getting comfortable and thinking what he would do to the idiotic investigator he had hired to find his missing lord… the moron had actually demanded blackmail money or he would go to the ministry with his 'information' He had finally decided to just kill the annoying arse when a familiar owl came through his window. Lucius allowed himself an uncharacteristic groan, with the way his luck was running this could only be bad news from his account manager. He still forced himself to get up and retrieve the letter before he could allow himself to be lazy about the matter.

The letter was_ not_ what he had expected.

_Lord Malfoy,_

_We at Gringotts wish to extend to you an honor that only three in the world shall receive. Tonight a ritual will be invoked that has not been used in over five thousand years. We wish to offer you the right to act as a Witness to the extraordinary events that shall be unfolding. If you feel that you are capable of taking on both the honor and the duty that this role requires please place a drop of your blood upon this sheet of paper and it will transport you to the place of the ritual, where all the detail will be explained to you. If however you are unavailable or simply feel that you are incapable of taking on these responsibilities please just tear up this letter, it will inform us of your decision and we will see to finding another to take your place._

_ Cordially,_

_ Goblin Elder Ragnarok and Lord Chaostri_

He had to admit that it was a well scripted letter. Normally he would have very likely ignored the letter if it weren't for two things. First was the fact that a lord had signed this letter, a lord that he did not know, which did not bode well for his political clout should they choose to enter the arena. Second was that the goblin elder had also signed. He had not partaken of human affairs in over sixty years; if he was acting now then it must be something of earth changing effects. With his decision made he went to his desk and pulled a dagger from the top drawer of his desk, allowing a single drop of his blood to fall upon the parchment, and feeling the magic take hold.

COV

She laughed in delight as her son giggled, running through the house being chased by feathers that were tickling him. There was nothing in the world that she loved more than her children; she had proven it several times. When he again ran through the parlor she called him "Blaise, come here sweetheart." She sent the feathers back to their places and pulled her son into her lap. "Pansy has flooed and asked if you would like to go over to her family's manor and spend a week there. I believe that she has asked a number of your friends as well and is planning a Quidditch event. Would you like to go?" Blaise looked up at her with shining eyes. "Yes please mother, I would love to!" Aurelia laughed again at his blatant delight, and sent him with a house elf to watch over him. She was settling onto her chaise with a good book when an owl came through her window. She frowned, this was worrying… the goblins knew better than to approach her before their next scheduled meeting. Feeling a creeping wave of anxiety she swiftly went to the owl and retrieved the letter. Opening the missive she was truly surprised by its words.

_Lady Zabini,_

_ We at Gringotts would like to extend you an honor that only three in the world shall receive. Tonight a ritual shall be invoked to free an extraordinary child from bondage; a ritual that has not been seen in over five thousand years. We wish to offer you the opportunity to act as a Witness to this great event. If you feel that you are capable of taking both the honor and the duty that this role requires please place a drop of your blood upon this paper and it will transport you to the place of the ritual, there the details will be explained to you. However if you are unavailable or simply feel that you are unable to bear these responsibilities please just tear up this letter, it will inform us of your decision and we will see to finding another to take your place._

_ Cordially,_

_ Goblin Elder Ragnarok and Lord Chaostri _

Aurelia felt a wave of anger. According to this missive, a child was put into bondage. If there was anything that she would do in this lifetime it was protect children. Swiftly pulling a sharp pin from her hair, she allowed her blood to fall to the parchment; and she was on her way.

COV

He was lonely; he knew that he wasn't completely sane, but even so he wished for the companionship he had been denied ever since he had undertaken that last little 'task' that was required of him by his lord. He had been given explicit instructions to use in the training of six children that his lord felt would be more pliant if treated in a certain manner… he had obeyed; and at the end of the program not even his lord could look upon him as human any longer. His lord had killed his six children as a 'mercy' to them. Ever since then he had been shunned. He needed; if not a companion then at least a purpose. As he was pondering this an owl flew over to him. This caused Evan no small amount of shock. No owl had come to him in just over six years. He eagerly opened the _letter._

_ Lord Rosier_

_ We at Gringotts would like to extend an honor to you that only three in the world shall receive. Tonight a ritual shall be undertaken to free a child from bonds cast upon him by another. It is a ritual that has not been seen in over five thousand years. We wish to offer you the opportunity to act as a Witness to this great undertaking. If you feel that you are up to both the honor and duty that this role would require of you please place a drop of your blood upon this paper and it will transport you to the site of the ritual, there you shall receive further details._ _However if you are unavailable or simply feel that you are unable to bear these responsibilities please just tear up this letter, it will inform us of your decision and we will see to finding another to take your place._

_ Cordially,_

_ Goblin Elder Ragnarok and Lord Chaostri_

Evan smiled. Somebody was offering him something… and it felt like it would be attached to a purpose. Maybe if he was very lucky he would also receive his companionship. Not even thinking past that, within moments he was on his way.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Ragnarok sat back at his desk smiling, he felt that at least two of the recipients of his letter would be intrigued by what he had written and would come for no other reason than that; the third was a wild card, but then the insane generally were… his attention was drawn back to the boy who had just finished being healed by the greatest of the goblins' healers; they had heard his emotionless statement about the abuse he had been forced to endure, but nothing had prepared them for the medical report they had received.

The boy was seven (today in fact) and had over fifty broken bones, none of them treated by anything but the boys own survival magic. When he had said that he had been forced into sexual acts they hadn't realized the extent of the damage that would be done to the small boy… most of the healing had gone straight to this area of his body. There were scars across his back caused by varying things, such as what was obviously a whip, a knife and what appeared to be claws but were from his uncles hands; they so thoroughly covered his skin that nary a centimeter could be seen without silver scars. Scars that could not be removed even by magical means. He was severely undernourished and appeared to be no more than five… a very short five. And all of this was without the burns, bruises, abrasions and lesions that covered the rest of his body.

At the boy's request they had not placed the boys name upon it, and in return he had agreed to allow the 'witnesses' to see it. He had looked uncomfortable about even that, but once the goblins had agreed to keep his human name from his witnesses he had given them a glowing grin that had caused them to feel a warmth within that even now was sending small bursts of pleasure throughout their bodies. Ragnarok felt a small burst of sorrow. It had been three hours now since the letters had left his desk to their respective recipients and during that time he had watched Chaostri, he moved in a way that brought to mind both a highly effective predator and a small child who was in pain.

It was now that the first of their 'witnesses' appeared before him; he was surprised to see that it was Evan Rosier, he had actually been unsure if he would appear at all. "If you would just wait for a few minutes, my lord, we are awaiting the other two, and then we shall allow all of you to ask your questions."

Evan nodded, and then turned his gaze around the room. He stilled in shock when he noticed the small boy naked across the room; he had not been allowed in the same room as any child since his little 'project' even the death eaters wouldn't allow him around their children. He gazed at the child, noticing the tattoos across his front and his blazingly green eyes. He saw the unnatural thinness of his body and the overdeveloped muscles across his body. Then the boy turned and he saw the scars that covered his back, and he felt a wave of protectiveness swell through him. He paused in shock, though his body showed no sign of it. He hadn't felt the need to protect anything since his daughter had died; two years before the project assigned by his lord. Evan grinned, yes; he would protect this little one.

Aurelia blinked for a moment as she appeared in the large chamber; the first thing that her eyes fell upon was the scarred back of a tiny boy who was quietly talking to a goblin across the room. Her eyes narrowed with wrath, no child should have any scars like this… they spoke of torture. She was no novice in the game of torturing humans; but she generally had a purpose for the torture, she could think of no reason to torture any child. The boy turned for a moment at something the goblin said and turned towards her, inclining his head in a small nod. She was captivated by his sparkling emerald green eyes. As he removed his eyes from her she noticed the tattoos that went across the front of his body for a moment she felt indignation; then a wave of acceptance flowed across her, soothing her anger. These marks upon his body felt right… like he would be incomplete and possibly broken without them. A moment later she finally felt the gaze that had been upon her since she arrived, turning towards it she was surprised to see Evan quietly watching both her and the boy. She met the gaze of the man and saw what he was feeling, as he saw what she did, they smirked at each other, and acknowledged to themselves that they were glad of the choices so far. They were aware of the others past, but they would set aside any differences until this was over.

Lucius was the last to appear, and he immediately started looking for the Lord that had called upon him. It took him a moment to notice Evan and Aurelia; however when he did notice it became apparent to him that they had found something that bound them to each other. They were sharing a look that practically screamed "together we protect". It made him very curious so he made a more detailed inspection of the room that he was in; suddenly he was very glad that he had his social mask on. Standing in front of him was a child that appeared to be younger than his son, and he was covered in scars. Just by differing state of the scars he could tell he had been tortured for years; then the boy turned to him and he saw those amazing glowingly green eyes, and he felt an uncomfortable twitch in his lower stomach. He was appalled at his bodies' reaction to the small boy in front of him. His attention was drawn to the goblin elder in front of him as he cleared his throat. The goblin grinned, showing all of his sharp teeth "now that all three of you are here, if you will follow me, I will answer any questions that you have, short of ones that I cannot answer for any reason."

The three humans trooped silently after the elderly goblin to his office. Once they were seated the goblin handed each of them a file. "This is the file of the boy Chaostri, do not open them yet." He swept them with a piercing glance. "You should be aware that what is happening here tonight must not yet be known to the world; in fact if you open those files it will be marked as a magically binding contract to never speak of any information you come by, anything you hear or see or witness to anybody without Lord Chaostri's express permission. You should also be aware that any magical creature in the world would give two sound limbs and three quarters of their life-spans to be sitting where you are now. What is being asked of you is great, secrecy even from your most beloved, your protection while he is recovering, and if he should ask it of you, for you to provide the… type of meals he will require. However in return if you accept his offer you will receive his protection and it is vast indeed. You will receive his companionship, so long as you do not anger him too greatly. He will offer you knowledge on many subjects that have been forgotten by humans, and show you places that are not of this world. And to each of you he will return to each of you one thing that you thought to be lost to you. I will give you a few minutes to discuss things amongst yourselves; you should be aware that once you open the folder you will not be able to speak to the others until they also open theirs." With this Ragnarok swept out of the room.

The three left behind looked at each other silently; each judging the reactions of the others. It was a surprise to all involved that Rosier was the first to speak. "I don't have anything to lose, and I have everything to gain. I shall accept this offer; however I know that I will not be able to offer him shelter… I am currently living in a situation that is… not conducive to a child living with me."

It was only a minor surprise that Aurelia spoke up next. "I would also be unable to offer shelter at this time; I am still being watched by the ministry after the death of my most recent husband; and if anything has been made clear here it is that secrecy is vital."

The other two looked expectantly at Lucius. He sighed "I can offer shelter; it will just be uncomfortable at first. What with Narcissa and Draco." The others looked at Lucius in sympathy.

Narcissa was known to be a territorial bitch that delighted in making others uncomfortable. Draco however was just possessive of what little free time his father had; the boy adored his father more than anything in the world. They could just see him getting jealous of Chaostri. Looking at each other and seeing that they were all in agreement, they opened their files. And as one they paled.

The very first page that they looked at was a picture of a very nude Chaostri that was slowly revolving; this wasn't so bad… or wouldn't be if it hadn't been a picture of him before his session with the healers that day, all the way down to the blood trickling down the back of his thighs. As it was even Evan had a hard time keeping his stomach calm. When they had finished reading the medical file all three of them were vibrating with rage. Ragnarok re-entered the room then and seeing that all three had read the files, he just nodded. "If you three will follow me, it is about to start."

Chaostri finished the last of the runes around his circle, and was stepping into it as the three walked out of Ragnarok's office. Five goblins took their places around him and began to chant an incantation that no living human had heard. After about twenty minutes Chaostri had started to float into the air; ten minutes later he was swallowed by an incandescent egg, and all that anyone could see of him was a shadow in the center. It was another hour of chanting before they saw another difference but after that the changes were rapid.

The egg split wide open and then dissolved into a pale silver fog that filled the chamber, though it was thick they could still see Chaostri clearly. He was still floating above the floor, but he looked very different from what he had before, he was still pale, his scars were still there and he still had his tattoos; however, he had large ephemeral wings sprouting from his back, they were beautiful glossy black with silver feathers sprinkled intermittently throughout, and when he stretched them out instinctively they looked like the stars in the night sky. His feet now looked like a dragons hind legs, complete with their claws, and scales a shiny slate blue ran up to his knees. His hands bore retractable claws, and flowing from each of his elbow was a long flickering; constantly moving shadow. The final thing that they noticed was that his eyes had changed… they were now solidly green, no white showing, the pupils were quicksilver slits much like a snake's or a dragon's. And upon his forehead was a large pearl, which seemed to draw in the magic and the light that surrounded the boy without actually swallowing it up.

The goblins stood away from the circle, offering him the freedom of space, and he extended an arm towards a cell that nobody had noticed before. Inside the cage were five humans who were quaking with fear of the power that had been unleashed that day. A goblin went to the cage and shoved out a human female who looked rather like an obese bulldog, and prompted her with his spear to enter the circle that Chaostri had yet to leave. Within seconds he was upon her, savoring the flavor of the blood of one of his childhood tormentors. Minutes later he dropped her body to the ground and again extended his hand to the cage.

Another human was shoved in front of him, and again he feasted; this one was special… this was the first male that his uncle had brought home to join in on the 'fun and games' he played with Harry. He finished this one quickly as well. This time he didn't even need to move, the third was brought to him.

Ahh, this one would only be missed by her cats, she had witnessed all of the tortures he had endured and had never lifted so much as her voice to help him. Finally his aunt was shoved forward; she was so afraid that she couldn't move, and he finished her off rapidly; not much blood in that stringy frame.

When the goblins prodded his 'uncle' forward he seemed to finally come out of his fear ridden haze and began to shout at Harry. 'You filthy, horrible freak! How dare you treat us like this? After all that Petunia and I have done for you! You have no right to treat us in this fashion at all." For the first time since the ritual had been performed Chaostri spoke.

His voice was beautiful… it sang of currents of deep dark, beautiful powers that danced with the stars in their creation, it wept with the sorrows of every being that had lived, and it throbbed with the pain, hatred and lusts of the entire world. He sneered beautifully at the horribly obese man. "I have far more right to my treatment of you than you ever had the right to me; be glad that I will not enslave you, I will not beat you or rape you… nor will I kill your son for his behavior towards me. Be glad that I offer you a quick death." With no further consideration of the man Chaostri quickly subdued him and finished him, feasting upon his blood.

When the boy drew away from the body he let out a joyous shriek of victory, and as all watched, his new attributes slowly faded into his skin until he again appeared as he had before the ritual, save for a small silver white circle in the middle of his forehead. He turned towards his chosen three and hesitantly stepped towards them; scanning their faces rapidly as he made his approach. When he was halfway to them, a goblin dashed forward, offering him a strange cloth that appeared to be made of shadows and moonlight, the boy smiled his thanks and hugged the fabric to himself. The three watched in surprise as the strange material wrapped itself around him, completely covering his nudity. A moment later it formed itself onto very flattering wizarding robes such as the highest echelons would wear.

The boy finally reached them and offered a hesitant smile. Aurelia was the first to make a move; she shoved forward and gathered the boy into her arms. "We weren't certain what you would need, so all that we have come up with is who will be able to offer you shelter for now. Rosier is probably living in a cat-house right now, so we figured that wouldn't be suitable… and since you seem to desire secrecy you can't stay with me." Here she glanced down bashfully. "I had to kill my husband recently and the ministry is still watching me." She glanced at Chaostri a little warily, but he simply smiled at her while looking a little surprised.

Which was explained a moment later; "I must admit, I hadn't thought that far ahead. I just wanted to remove my bonds… all else was a secondary matter." He looked at Rosier and smiled; "A cathouse, huh?"

Rosier gave him a dashing grin, and pranced over to drop an arm over the shoulder of the boy in Aurelia's arms. "Of course! Where else would I go? After all, I have to keep myself amused-oomph!" Lucius had joined the gathering while Rosier was playing around and smacked him in the back of the head at this point, receiving a pouting glare from the man. But all three of the adults felt a glow of happiness when the boy between them started giggling. Even the goblins shared glances of happiness when they heard the sound out of the small being, but it was clear that the four in the middle of the room huddled around each other belonged together in some indefinable way, there was a glow about them that gave a warmth every living being would die to possess. It was in this moment that the three humans truly appreciated the gift that had been given to them by this small boy, and why Elder Ragnarok had said what he had about others wanting their place; and the price they would be willing to pay.

They spent about twenty minutes just joking and playing around before the small boy in front of them gently called them to a halt. Aurelia was hesitant to let him go, but when he asked it of her she let him down. "You three can call me Chaostri." He said as he led them to another office, once they had all sat down he joined them, and decided that he might as well get this part of the process over with. "Well, you are probably all a little curious about me-" here he was interrupted by Rosier's snort, he glanced at him only to laugh as the man made a measuring motion with his thumb and forefinger as he mouthed 'a little'. "**So**," he continued exaggeratedly, "I'm going to give you some of that information. The first thing that you should probably be aware of is that I am not human." Here he paused to take a deep breath. "I am the last in a long line of creatures known as Chaos Beasts." He stopped and then with a gesture of his hand he conjured a book into his lap; in just a few moments he found what he was looking for and handed it over to them opened to a specific article. "Here read this; it will give you some of the basics."

_Chaos Beast: a being that is created by magic to protect the world, each has between 2 and 6 mates, in theory there could be more, but 6 is the largest quantity recorded. Known to have many traits of magical creatures, voice of the siren, hunger of the incubus/succubus, blood hunger of the vampire, shape-shifting, and dream walking there are believed to be other powers that are individual to each being._

_Their eyes are generally of strongly unusual colors. Hair can be any color, but generally will not grow until maturity. These creatures have extraordinarily long lives, in fact one has never died of natural causes; their body has a peculiar healing mechanism, in general they will heal in a way similar to humans until they are severely wounded, in which case their body tends to go into a coma and heal everything at an amazingly rapid pace. These are rare and amazingly powerful creatures, and the only time of real weakness is in infancy; beware readers… should you cross a chaos beast, there is no place in any realm that will grant you sanctuary, for these are truly magic's most beloved children. _

When they had finished reading the rather short article they looked at the small boy rather dazedly. "Well, that didn't tell us much, but it did tell us some of the things we will need to see to getting for you, such as a supply of blood." Said Lucius drolly, then a thought appeared in his mind and came out before he could stop himself. "What _are_ we going to do about the hunger of an incubus?"

The boy looked away and then back inhaling deeply before starting. "there… should be one of you that felt a call towards my body at some point; but you don't have to worry about that yet, I shouldn't be mature enough to need to feed in that manner for another two or so years, and you shouldn't feel ashamed, it is a function of my magic to make sure that at least one um, meal is available." Shyly looking at them he hesitated before going on "though I am sorry to say, as I do know that this is probably very embarrassing, I need to know which of you it is, because if that hunger awakens in me early as many of my other hungers have, I need to know who to go to."

Evan and Aurelia looked at each other and shook their heads, then turned their gaze to Lucius. Who to their great delight was actually blushing. Chaostri had been watching the wordless exchange between his humans with delight. They were already showing signs of group mentality, and were reading each other well after six years of being apart. His choices were well made; a tiny shiver went up his spine as he looked at Lucius… and he couldn't wait until that particular hunger kicked in. with a smile at his humans he continued.

"I am not sure what you expect of me, so I will tell you more of what my responsibilities are before you get your turn to tell me what you want and need from our relationship. I am a lord in more than just name, I have accounts and investments that I look after, and in this portion of my life I need no assistance. Every cb has a purpose that they were put on this planet for. You may already be partially aware of mine; I think that all of you are aware that the muggles are causing huge quantities of pollution to our planet with their machines and factories?" he posed it as a query. All of his humans nodded, Aurelia with a sad expression, Lucius one of cold solemnity and Evan with one of fiery fury.

"My first purpose is to preserve our planet, I was sent because if I do not stop a few events in the future; our planet will be incapable of sustaining life at all, but before that the magical world will be completely destroyed, and the bonds that tie this realm to all other will be severed." He looked at them; making sure that he had their attention. And oh did he ever have it. "I already have plans to fix these matters in place; however until the time comes for you to take your places in them I cannot give you the details. Not will not but cannot." He reiterated. "I will however, need protection. For another year I am very vulnerable, my powers will fluctuate wildly, as will my emotions. I apologize now because I know I will be a trial to all three of you; I have been told that it will be like having all the years of teen angst in a single year." He grinned at the semi-horrified, semi-amused expressions upon their faces. "I will also need to make trips to various realms other than this one, and I will need at least two of you with me for most of those… some I will have to take alone, and when I return you may have difficulties with recognizing me." They simply continued to look at him. Chaostri sighed, "You are allowed to ask me questions you know." He muttered sulkily.

Evan laughed and teased him "It's starting already isn't it?" Chaostri looked mortified and simply nodded, blushing brightly.

Lucius took the first question. "When and where will the first of these trips be? And how will you decide who gets to go with you?"

Chaostri smiled widely at him; and he noted dazedly that his fangs were no longer showing. "I'm not sure if I can explain this part to you very well, but when you agreed to become my guardians, you were tied into my power in a way, it gave me a rather accurate reading of your personalities and your abilities. And based on what I know of any place we go is how I will rate your abilities against our mission. My first trip will need to be next month during the full moon; we will be going to Tokyo, Japan; where we will be crossing into another dimension so that I may seek a specific sword-smith to create a weapon keyed specifically to me. It is a rite of passage for every cb, and you will only be able to accompany me for a very short distance." He looked around at his humans, and felt a small wave of fear… what if they thought he was too much trouble? What if they didn't want to be tied to him any more?

Suddenly all three adults felt an unstoppable urge to reassure their little one Aurelia and Evan sat on either side of him and drew him into their arms and Lucius stooped to something he normally never would have done; he sat on the floor and laid his head on the boys lap. After a few moments all three stepped away and went back to their chairs; leaving the little beast feeling better. "Lucius, I would like to get your assistance on an important matter, if you don't mind?" the blond man looked at him and raised a well shaped eyebrow. "I need to go about attaining the lawful freedom of a Sirius Black. His help will be required in the future." Lucius thought for a moment, and then asked "how soon would you need him to be out?" Chaostri looked at him apologetically "would a week be too quickly for you? You see, Dumbledore knows about me… in fact, he was the one who bound my magic and sent me live with those muggles. He will be keeping a bit of a close watch on the house I was staying in… I bought us some time to get the ball moving by killing his watchdog, but if he thinks that this is something that I want he will fight us all the way."

Lucius gave a predatory smile that sent a delicious thrill up Chaostri's spine (hey he may be in a seven year old body, but he's lived through thousands). "well perhaps I can come up with something… though do you know whether he is guilty of the crimes he is accused?" the little beast smiled at him "Completely innocent on all charges, in fact if you want I can get you a witness to his innocence… one I believe that you and your compatriots have been looking for; for years." Lucius raised a brow queryingly "Wormtail aka Peter Pettigrew." Was the satisfied answer.

"If you can get him to us by tomorrow I can present Black to you by the morning after." Chaostri grinned and made a swift gesture with one of his hands; a small glowing portal appeared before him and still grinning he reached his hand through it and swiftly drew back holding a fat, raggedy rat. He bowed before Lucius quite elegantly while presenting him with the thing.

With an expression of distaste Lucius grabbed it by the tail and looked at the other members of his little group with an expression of 'what do I do with _this_' that caused the others to burst into laughter. Through his gasps Chaostri managed to say "A-animagus" before falling pray to the laughter once again as realization dawned upon Lucius, who swiftly conjured up a cage and placed the rat within, then placing several spells upon it to prevent escape and transformation.

"Well, it's your three's turn to ask questions of me."

This time it was Evan who took point. "Why did you not free yourself before this point, I felt your power you are more than strong enough to destroy Dumbledore."

The boy looked at him and responded simply. "He caught me when I was still acclimating to my body, I was only 15 months old, and the spells that he cast upon me separated portions of my mind from others… I couldn't coordinate myself enough to make a stand. It was only this morning that I finally got myself back together."

Aurelia stepped in next, "Why did you choose us, how did you even know who we were?" here they could see a small amount of nervousness in Chaostri, he looked at the floor, then at the wall just past Evans' shoulder.

"When I came to this world I had great knowledge of what would come; so as to know what I needed to fix… what to protect and what was too corrupt to survive. After looking through the information that exists in my head, I knew how a great many people would react to this information. In example, if I told Aberforth Dumbledore about what his brother did to me he would be horrified; however if I told him of my knowledge, he would Obliviate me 'because the future must not be tampered with'." Looking around he saw the dawning understanding in their eyes. "I had a large list of requirements of the people who would become my family; they must be willing to protect me, they must be willing to work with me, be able to understand that I am more than I appear to be and treat me accordingly; and that I have…'special needs', they must understand that while I offer great knowledge I may not give them all that they ask for. They would have to be safe for me to be around when I am weak; strong enough for their sanity to survive my existence; loyal enough not to destroy me while I am weak to better themselves; brave enough to talk to me and not simply kneel in fear at my power… they need to be my balance, keep me from simply destroying everything and then watching the bugs rebuild from the stone age." Here the dawning understanding on their faces blazed much clearer, and a look of acceptance and happiness was joining it. "You three were not the only ones to pass my requirements, however, you were the three that I felt something for… when I saw you in my future memories I felt affection and love for you… so it was you three that I selected."

It was Lucius' turn to ask a question. "You said that you would give us knowledge, is this a knowledge where we get what we ask for, or will you be giving us specific knowledge for our purposes with you?"

Chaostri smiled at him proudly. "you may ask for the knowledge that you want; I retain the right to refuse you, however if you explain your reasons for wanting specific knowledge I will most likely give it to you… some knowledge I am required to receive oaths from you on the use of, however, so please be aware of this; and yes, you will also receive mission specific magic lessons."

It was again Aurelia's turn to speak. "These missions you speak of… what will we do with our children while we are with you? And how will we be able to keep you secret?"

The look of pride evolved into sheer joy and he was grinning now. "The goblins are even now giving me a new identity, I will look different than now, and I will be joining Lucius as a distant cousin who was orphaned, so you will not have to ignore me or anything. In fact I expect to become great friends with your children, so it will not look amiss that you three start spending more time with each other, and it certainly won't be amiss that the children start having sleepovers at Lucius' place now will it?" he flashed another grin, only to falter at the look of sadness on Evans' face as he stated.

"I'm a wanted man, I can't go out in public; I doubt that I will be of much use to you." It came out as a mixture of grief, rage and self-disgust.

Chaostri simply looked at him steadily for a moment before he stated casually. "Were you aware that a generation or two ago there were quite a few metamorphmagus' in your family?" Evan looked at him with an expression that quite clearly asked what this had to do with him. Chaostri sighed, "If you would like, I could release that ability from its dormancy within your blood."

Rosier looked like he had been given a new life when he had been expecting a death sentence. And with a grin the others had never seen on his face he nodded enthusiastically at the boy who smiled back; glad that he had caused the man such happiness.

Lucius got an idea from this and offered it up then. "why doesn't Evan pose himself as your older brother, we could say that your parents were living in France and died in a horrible accident a few months ago, after much searching you two were sent to me to live with as your last living relatives." By this point Evan looked ready to weep from sheer joy; not only would he be allowed companions again but he could hide in plain sight, Lucius wasn't afraid to allow him to live with him, his son and Chaostri, he would be allowed a life and he wouldn't be alone or only sought after for missions as he had been in the past. He would be truly accepted. In his heart in that moment he accepted Chaostri as his new lord; the one he would follow through flames and death… this being was HIS lord and was the only one who truly mattered; after that moment for the rest of his life in his head and heart he referred to Chaostri as 'my lord'.

It took three hours for the ability to become unlocked and under Evans control; with some inside help from Chaostri, but Evan was finally satisfied with his new appearance. He looked to be fifteen and had metallic silver eyes; his hair was as black as Harry's and he was a good looking boy at that. He was a paragon of masculinity, tall at 5'11" and already broad shouldered with slim hips… to put it plainly, he made himself built. A fact that Aurelia couldn't help but tease him about. After a while when they stopped laughing at Aurelia's initial reaction to Evans new body (she blushed). They finally got Chaostri to show them the form that he would be taking while with them.

He had chosen his well beforehand, so he showed them without any fuss. They went silent. Looking at them in alarm he finally asked "What did I just do wrong?" that snapped them out of their shock and they swiftly rushed to reassure him that he hadn't done any such thing. They had all been in shock at the simple beauty of this form. He had made himself look as if he was 10; he was 5'2" with eyes a shade of glowing blue green that they had never seen before but they could easily get lost within, he had a delicate nose and perfectly formed delicate pink lips; his hair was still black but it extended down to his hips in flowingly straight lines. His skin was an alabaster hue that had the faintest of pink on his cheeks.

Chaostri sat down next to Evan and said "we need to start the work on our cover story, there are a few parts that we cannot change; we will need to say that our father was an incubus, thus our mother was the Malfoy, she can be from a branch of the family that chose to live in obscurity in France; since that is where we have already decided to come from. You are obviously fifteen and I am ten, so I at least will be attending Hogwarts next year, you will attend a school but you may choose which for yourself; you may wish to consider Durmstrang… it would lengthen the influence of our cause… we were both home schooled by our parents whom were killed by other incubi because our father was a lord and they were angry that he had chosen me to carry that title over full blooded incubi. You did not receive the incubi gene so, while you couldn't carry the incubi title, you received a French lordship from the Malfoy side of the family as eldest. It took them 5 months to locate Lucius. My name will be Eiri. What is your name big brother?" he teasingly asked.

Evan thought and said "I think I will be Perry, I kind of like that name." he grinned; "and when we get in trouble we'll rhyme."

They all laughed at this point. "I think you have a point though about the schools; I will take your advice about Durmstrang." Eiri nodded solemnly. "We will each be in charge of our individual fortunes under the 'guidance' of our guardian Lucius. My scars are from an incident where I was kidnapped shortly before our parents' death, I barely survived, and the scars that you can't cover come from when you tried to keep them away from me before they got me away from the family. We are prodigies; and I am a genius. If asked I speak French, Latin, English, gobbledygook, and German fluently. I am horrible at history and potions, but am very interested in the second field of studies. Oh, and I speak Parseltongue." Evan was absorbing every detail rapidly as were the others but they all stared at him strangely when he said the last one. Eiri looked up. "What? I actually have beast speak, so I can talk to all animals." He smiled at them. "As much as I hate to do it, I do have to get the old coot's attention, and make sure that he doesn't believe that I am the one he is looking for. I am not ready to die at this time." The matter of fact way he stated this made them feel a tremor in their hearts and a chill up their spines.

Finally Lucius said in a joking yet serious manner; "all right boys, it's time to get you home and into bed; Draco will be home tomorrow and we'd best get you settled in tonight." The 'boys' nodded and Perry laughingly said "yes Uncle Lucy" Lucius shuddered and glared as Aurelia laughed behind her hand.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Eiri awoke early and remained limp and motionless while he tried to ascertain where he was; the bed was soft… suddenly he remembered, and he smiled. If anyone had witnessed that smile the pure beauty of it would have been forever engrained in their hearts. As it was, the small-boned silver eyed boy who caught a mere glimpse of it stopped in his tracks as he barged angrily into the room. He paused; then seemed to remember what he was doing here and ran at the startled boy who was still lying on the bed. "Why did you come here? Why couldn't you go somewhere else? It's all your fault I know it is!" without explaining what he was yelling about he balled up his fist and hit Eiri on the chin with all his might. Unfortunately, this is when Perry came running from the sound of the yelling and saw Draco hit his 'brother'. With a growl he grabbed Draco and jerked his head at the door to his brother; Eiri nodded, got up and followed them out the door. They figured that if Draco was this awake and upset then Lucius would probably be in his study… they were right… however, he wasn't alone.

"How dare you bring two ragamuffins into my home without even consulting me!" shrieked a high pitched feminine voice.

"For the last time, Narcissa, they are family and lords in their own rights; they had nowhere else to go. Malfoy's stand by their families, we are not getting rid of them no matter how you feel on the matter. They have done nothing to you; they will be credits to the family name. Precisely how many times in one day do I have to repeat myself before you get it through your apparently thick skull that these facts will not change just because you are a petty bitch?" Lucius roared; apparently they had been at this for quite a while.

Suddenly a much subdued little boy looked up at them. "You don't have anywhere else to go?" the elder boys looked down at him and shook their heads.

"No, our parents were killed about five months ago; you and your father are the last family we have in the world."

Here Eiri put in; "however if we are causing this level of dissent simply with our presence perhaps we should simply buy a house together big brother."

Draco, realizing precisely how unfair he had been and how cruel he must seem (he couldn't even imagine life without his father) quickly rushed out. "No, don't go! I'm sorry that I hit you. I didn't understand. But I don't want family to hate me; please don't leave." The brothers looked at each other, after a few moments of shifting expressions, the older of the two released Draco and took a step back.

"Harry stepped forward "we don't hate you Draco; and if you really want we will stay here with you. However if we continue to cause such troubles between your parents we will have to go later. For now though, why don't we give your mother a chance to meet us and perhaps change her opinion of us."

Draco beamed up at his 'slightly older' cousin and started towards the study doors. Paused, and turned back to them sheepishly. "I never got your names." He grinned shyly at them. Perry's eyes, hard with anger all this time, softened and he pointed at his brother and then himself "Eiri, Perry." Draco looked between them and both brothers could see the laughter behind his eyes. Without saying a word he strode the rest of the way to the doors, gesturing for his cousins to follow him; and shoved them open, striding through them arrogantly. He was nearly cursed for his effort; just as he was opening the door his mother was throwing a nasty hex at his father for some comment that the boys had missed during their conversation. Lucius, being the experienced death eater that he was had instinctively thrown up a shield, which had done its job. Lucius could only watch in horror as the pain curse that was second only to cruciatus flew towards his seven year old son. Eiri however was quick and close enough to do something about it; he threw himself in the path of the curse and shoved Draco towards Perry, making sure that none of the curse would slip past him to the boy.

Lucius was shocked; then he was enraged; then he glanced at his wife and was murderous. The bitch was smiling. He sent the counter-curse at Eiri, and turned to Narcissa; "You will pack your bags, and you will leave this manor; I was willing to over look your affairs while you behaved in a manner befitting a Malfoy in the other areas of your life, however this is unforgivable. To find pleasure in the pain of a family member who saved your child the pain of a curse that you cast is not befitting of a Malfoy. You will be receiving divorce papers as soon as they can be drawn up. You will be receiving your dowry and the cottage in the Netherlands. Draco, of course will stay with me."

He had expected some struggle on the point of Draco, but he was shocked with what she said next. "Take the annoying little brat, I don't care about him at all, but you will not be divorcing me… our contract states that you will be married to me until death or the location of one of our soul mates. Face it Lucius, I will be a part of your life for as long as I live." After the words about her son left her mouth Perry quickly took a shocked, gasping and crying Draco back to his bedroom. He sat there, holding the boy and allowing him to cry; but in his mind he was crucifying the bitch in the muggle manner.

When those two left, Eiri finally managed to get up and stated. "That is okay. You see, you just killed yourself. You really should know better than to play with the unforgivables."

Narcissa, taking this as a threat grew enraged at the gall of this unwanted nuisance and cast the last spell of her life. "Avada Kedavra!" the second he saw the wand pointed at him Eiri wandlessly conjured a mirror in front of him and cast a spell upon it; and the killing curse bounced back and hit her in the chest. She fell bonelessly to the floor. Lucius was pale, and he had a moment in which he realized how much he had grown to care for the boy in front of him in a single night, he didn't mourn the dead woman, he had hated her well before he was forced to marry her. In that moment, Eiri became Lucius' true lord.

With a deep breath Eiri turned to Lucius. "she came back from shopping found out about my brother and I; causing a scene, Draco came to meet us and made friends, took us to meet her hoping that she would calm down, she threw a curse at you as we came in, which you reflected on instinct that hit me, she smiled and laughed about it, you enraged threatened to divorce her and she said some horrible things about not loving Draco, and my brother took him out of here, she said something derogative about us and you reiterated the divorce threat; she, enraged blamed me for the seriousness of the threat and cast the killing curse at me, you horrified that she would do such a thing threw one of her purchases, a mirror in the way of her curse and we have no idea how it reflected the killing curse, but it killed her, acceptable?" Eiri asked quietly. Lucius gave a nod and went to the fireplace, calling the Aurors and minister Fudge to the scene of the event.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Within five minutes minister fudge and five Aurors including Kingsley Shacklebolt and Mad-eye Moody made their appearances. The first things that they saw were the dead body of Narcissa Malfoy and an overly pale boy in a chair curled up in a ball and rocking as if his world was about to end. "What is this?" spluttered fudge. Looking about in horror the fat little man was about to continue on when the boy started making gasping noises, apparently hyperventilating, this however was not what made all in the room stare in shocked silence; no, it was the fact that haughty and cold Lucius Malfoy, death eater extraordinaire got up from behind the desk and rushed forward to pull the boy into his arms and started to speak soothingly to him.

"Shhh, Eiri, calm down. You are safe, nobody will hurt you here. You're safe. I'll protect you, and they will never get you again just calm down… try taking deep breaths, that's it. Just keep that up…. Good boy." This kept on for several moments until the boy finally started to calm down, but then he burst into tears, a few minutes later he fell asleep in Lucius' lap, head cradles against his broad chest.

Kingsley and Moody shared a glance of shock with each other; Moody turned back to the scene in front of him and took a step forward, only to be interrupted again by fudge. "WHAT-" Lucius shot the man a glare that silenced him. "If all of you would take a seat I will explain what is going on, however, as this is extremely confidential family information, Minister Fudge, I would ask that you select your two most trustworthy Aurors and send the rest on their way." Fudge, remembering all the past campaign contributions to him, nodded and selected Moody and Kingsley. The rest left after gathering the body of Narcissa, still feeling shell shocked at the sight of a caring Malfoy.

Lucius took a deep breath and gestured for them to take a seat, fudge and Kingsley sat in the chairs in front of the desk and Moody flat out refused to sit at all; Lucius a little stiffly got up and placed the limp form of his "cousin" on the couch then took his place on the far side of the desk.

"To make you understand what happened here this morning, I will first have to explain a bit about Eiri over there, and his brother who is upstairs right now with my son. You see what many people do not know about my family is that twenty-six generations ago, there was a split that was deemed irreparable between members of the family; we were larger then, and a group of Malfoys left for France to put distance between the feuding factions and allow both sides to live their ideals. We here in England all but forgot about them. Eighteen years ago one of the French Malfoy women fell in love with and married a noble of the incubi. The first child she bore him, conceived after two years of marriage did not carry the incubi genes and so could not carry the incubi' title and the rest of the incubi were satisfied that their lord would someday choose one amongst them as his heir."

"However, ten years ago Halloween, Eiri here was born, and it was as clear as his fathers eyes in his face that he carried the incubi genes and that upon maturity would be the heir to his fathers title. After that there were about two assassination attempts a year on the child. After several failed attempts someone got the idea that perhaps if they held the older brother for hostage they would be able to force their lord into choosing from among them. Upon hearing of this plot neither of the children was allowed to leave the house thereafter. They had tutors, only the best and were kept learning so that they would not notice the things that they were missing, such as friends. About six months ago Sophia and her husband finally decided that enough time had passed since the last attempt on their children's' lives that they could go on a small vacation to the beach so that the children could play outside for a while. Whilst they were at the beach Farrell was suddenly stunned and Sophia and her children were attacked, Sophia was killed instantly; Perry fought to protect his little brother, he still bears the scars; but Eiri here… he was captured, they took him and apparated away just as his father broke free of the spell upon him."

"He had to rush to save Perry; there was nothing he could do for his younger son. They tortured the boy for a month solid, he was nine years old then, and he had never harmed a single person; I spoke with everybody I could find who knew anything about the family. He was the gentlest person they have ever met. When Farrell finally found his whereabouts, he rushed there and managed to get them back to their manor before he collapsed from his injuries. It was truly lucky that he had had the foresight to have a healer waiting for them in his study, or Eiri would have died as well, his body is covered with scars." Here Moody's magic eye whirred over to the boy, and in his head he was feeling distinctly shaky, some of the wounds that boy had had were so bad that he couldn't help but wonder how a nine year old boy had survived.

Lucius took a moment to compose himself; however Fudge, being the eternal embodiment of idiocy spoke up here. "Well that's interesting and all but precisely what does this have to do with anything?"

Gritting his teeth, Lucius continued "Farrell died of his wounds a week later. Now the amusing part of this little story is that it wasn't the incubi that carried out this particular attack, after having a chance to get to know my… I suppose I could call him my nephew, though it is more distant than that; they decided that he would make an exemplary lord and ceased their attempts to kill him. It was the humans that deciding that magic was evil, and what made it worse is that a local wizard who was refused a tutoring position that cast the spell that stunned Farrell and left his family defenseless. It took the authorities in France 5 months to come to me and request that I take over the care of the two of them…I agreed, Malfoys stand by family. I met them at Gringotts yesterday and filled out the paperwork to become their legal guardian." Here he went into the story that Eiri gave him; it was mostly the truth after all.

Fudge appeared quite shaken at the end of this. Kingsley was pale and staring with a horrified look at the little boy on the couch and Moody appeared murderous; but at the same time he appeared skeptical. "No mirror has ever cast the killing curse off, how did this one do it?"

Lucius looked the Auror straight in the eye as he answered. "I have no idea, you are welcome to take it with you and study it for yourself, I wasn't expecting it to reflect the spell, I was expecting it to get hit, possibly shatter; and leave Eiri alive." Moody was a bit surprised that he would be allowed to examine the mirror. And said as much. Lucius gave a faint twist of his lips in reply and gazed at Eiri. "It saved his life… imagine if there is a way to stop the killing curse."

Moody was beginning to think that there must be something special about the kid on the couch. Before he could ask anymore questions though Fudge burst in again. "What are your plans now?"

Lucius, still gazing at the still form of Eiri sighed, "I think that once you three leave I will inform my son of what happened with his mother, and then I am going to take my family traveling, see if I can't get them over this… Eiri has to go to school in a few months and he hasn't even had a real chance to recover from his first little captivity; and now this…" he trailed off.

'I don't think I have ever seen this man look so human… that boy may just be what he needs to straighten him out.' Kingsley thought to himself. He continued to watch for a few minutes as Moody continued to ask questions, Fudge continued to posture and Lucius continued to stare worriedly at the little boy sleeping on the sofa. Just then another boy walked in and saw the boy on the couch; the tear streaks that were drying on his cheeks and the utter stillness of his small frame. The boy looked anguished and bellowed.

"Eiri! Please be alright, wake up; please… don't leave me alone." It drew into a whisper as he ran toward the still boy. He threw himself to his knees at the side of the boy and gathered him into his arms, crying softly as the boy stirred and whispered "Perry?" suddenly realizing what his brother thought, he sat up and wrapped his arms around the larger boy, holding him tight and whispering reassurances.

Kingsley watched the scene for a moment, then remembering the comment made earlier about Eiri's eyes he twisted himself until he could see them clearly and he was stunned by the beauty of the orbs and the gentility held within. He had never seen a color that clear, he was transfixed until the boy closed his eyes for a few moments and finally got his brother off the floor and onto the couch where he had been laying minutes before. Moody noticed the expression on Kingsleys face and felt his suspicion skyrocket. He glared at the two boys on the couch whispering to each other. 'It is not at all normal for Kingsley to show emotion. It is unheard of for him to show shock and be enraptured. And why is that brat so calm. He nearly died.' Moody found that this raised even more questions. Unfortunately in his mind; Fudge made it clear that they were all leaving. Before he left he glanced back at the boys and found Eiri gazing at him solemnly after them; something about the steadiness of those blue-green orbs sent a shiver down his spine.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Albus Dumbledore was looking over two letters that he had received from a couple of his Aurors, and he was confused about their contents. He held the observation abilities of both of these men in high regard. It was March, and such he was already starting the setups and scheduling for the OWLs and NEWTS. With a sigh Albus turned back to the letter from Kingsley, it was a word for word, blow by blow account of the proceedings at Malfoy Manor. He was surprised at learning that the man had even bothered to allow the boys entrance to his home much less standing up against his wife about the issue of having them stay there.

Albus sighed again, now remembering the difficulties he could foresee in the future about this mess; without his spy in Lucius' house he was going to have to find another way to circumvent the man at the wizengamut. Pulling himself back from his thoughts, he turned himself back to the description given of the young boy and felt a moment of regret. He had been hoping that the boy might be Harry; ever since the Dursleys disappeared so precipitously two days ago he had been looking for the boy. What really confused him most about the letter from Kingsley was the fact that after a single meeting with no words spoken between them he was waxing poetic about his beauty and goodness… well, poetic for Kingsley anyway, to most people it would have been a mere statement of high belief in the boy. Moody's letter however was worrying for the opposite reason the boy had done nothing but cry and sleep in his presence and he felt that the ten year old boy was a threat. Albus gave another heartfelt sigh as Fawkes flew in through the window and perched upon his stand. Well, nothing I can do about it now; I will simply have to wait to see.

COV

Lucius was feeling rather overwhelmed, he had no idea how to handle this. Give him a situation where he was a prisoner, where he was leading men into combat or even where he had to identify seven types of silk in less than a minute and he was your man, but put him in this situation and he was a child lost in the forest. He was looking at his son… he had just explained in detail what had happened to his mother and the boy had simply stared at the wall past his head, pale and withdrawn.

Suddenly Draco's attention was drawn past him to the doorway; standing there quietly was Eiri looking nervous and shaky. He stepped forward "Draco, I'm sorry about what happened with your mother… I know that it's probably my fault and that you have every right to blame me for what happened. So, I think that you should have the choice of whether Perry and I get to stay… after all if we make you uncomfortable then you shouldn't have to put up with us." He trailed off here, looking everywhere but at Draco; so it wasn't a surprise that he missed the changing expressions upon his face.

Draco went from shock to disbelief to the feeling of being rejected to understanding and then anger all in about ten seconds flat. He walked over to Eiri calmly, evenly taking the fifteen steps that separated them. Then without a word he slapped Eiri for the second time that day. "How dare you say that this is your fault? Did you force her to cast a spell at you? I don't think so; you are family and you will stay with the family; you will not leave us alone!" here Draco faltered. "Unless you don't want to stay with us?" his voice wavered and broke here.

Eiri had been stunned from the slap, but at this he pulled the slightly smaller boy into a hug. "I will stay then, I will stay." The contact was too much for Draco; for the second time that day he broke down into tears, this time it was a good cleansing cry, and for that Lucius could not help but feel relief.

Perry, who had been watching from the doorway came and set a hand on Lucius' shoulder giving him an understanding glance. Lucius returned the glance with a thankful one. Then he stepped away from the comforting grip and picked up his son, who curled into his chest and continued to sob. A while later he tucked his son in and called for a house elf. When it appeared in front of him he left it some instructions about his son. "When he wakes up get him some hot chocolate and a warm meal, he will probably still be tired, but let Perry know and he will keep my son company until Eiri and I return from the ministry."

Perry looked at them and nodded then told the house elf "I'll be in the library doing some reading on incubi, so feel free to get me when it is time." The elf nodded and popped away. Perry looked at them and said "you're going to go turn in that rat aren't you?" Eiri looked at Lucius and then nodded, his face tired but resolute.

Eiri touched his pajamas and they reformed themselves back into the robes that had formed themselves around him the night before; it was only then that the other two realized that Eiri had never changed clothes, just shifted what he had on. They didn't ask him about it though, they had a feeling that they had not yet earned the right to know about that flowing fabric.

At the ministry Lucius caught Eiri as he stumbled out of the grate of the floo. Setting him upright he gestured for the boy to follow him and strode off towards Cornelius' office while carrying a small cage. "Minister," he regally sneered, "we need some Aurors in here."

Cornelius, at seeing the anger in Lucius' eyes quickly agreed and sent his secretary off to fetch them. A few minutes later Kingsley and Moody stepped through the door, looking wary. "Now Lucius, if you will kindly explain what this is all about?" simpered Fudge.

Lucius pointed a finger at the cage that he had sat upon Cornelius' desk. "That is what this is all about; I demand that you arrest it immediately!" Lucius somehow managed to sound horribly enraged with a low voice. The Aurors looked at the stunned and caged rat and then looked at Lucius like they were certain that he had lost his mind.

Moody then took another look at the rat and drew out his wand. "Animagus hmm, and why would we want to arrest this one?" he sneered at Lucius as he said this. "My cousin here recognized this one as one of the beings that helped in the attack on him six months ago, what is worse is that he hid away in his luggage, he had access to him this whole time!" Lucius roared like an enraged dragon.

Moody turned a thoughtful look upon the pale silent boy who was watching the cage fearfully. He turned back to the cage and pulled a set of manacles out of his pocket. "Kingsley, you cast the reversion charm and I'll cuff him so that he can't change back." Kingsley nodded and removing the rat cast the spell. Everybody in the office save the boy looked surprised; the boy just grabbed onto Lucius' sleeve and hid his face in his side.

"Pettigrew" murmured Kingsley, jolting Moody back into action. The rat was quickly cuffed in magic restricting manacles, and the Aurors looked at the minister.

Moody was the one to speak what was on their minds. "We will have to look into a trial for Sirius Black, you know that he claimed Pettigrew was still alive and was the betrayer."

Cornelius hemmed and hawed for a while before he finally gave in with slumped shoulders, sending a third Auror to Azkaban to pick up the convict. About half an hour later he was escorted in to the office where everybody was seated. He glanced around confusedly his eyes stopping on Pettigrew. A crazed manic laughter left his mouth as he gazed upon his old 'friend'. "Finally going to get what is coming to you, aren't you, you traitor." He cackled. He stopped abruptly when he noticed a small movement from the corner of his eye. He looked over to see what had caused it and saw a small boy sort of cringing away from where Pettigrew was slumped to the floor.

Lucius had a blank mask upon his face, but he could not help but feel pride at Eiri's acting abilities, all through the day he had been giving flawless acts that if he hadn't known about beforehand he himself would have fallen for. He was also glad that he knew in advance that Eiri had planted memories of the 'attack' on Eiri into the rat's head, thus giving him an excuse for how they had recognized the rat. All in all Lucius now knew that he would never underestimate this boy, and he felt peculiarly thankful that the boy was on his side. Lucius turned his gaze to Sirius Black, and noticed that his gaze was drawn to Eiri.

Black then looked at him and then looked very surprised. "What are you doing here Malfoy?" He sputtered. Moody grimaced and said "he's the one who turned in the rat; turns out that Pettigrew apparently was part of a gang that attacked his little cousin there and destroyed half his family." Sirius looked at the boy again who was clutching Lucius' sleeve. Normally he would have sneered at the brat; he was a Malfoy after all, but something about the haunted fearful expression in those gorgeous eyes made him swallow his words. The boy after all hadn't done anything wrong, was in fact the victim of an attack if what Moody said was true. A sixth person walked into the room, one that had been sent for while the third Auror who had left after retrieving Sirius had been sent.

COV

Severus Snape was not happy to be here, he hated the ministry; it was as corrupt as it got, and the fact that he was here with a bottle of truth serum did not bode well for him at all. When he glanced around the room he was at first relieved to see Lucius there; until he noticed Sirius Black was standing in the middle of the room laughing at the fallen and shackled form of the long missing Peter Pettigrew. Severus sighed and tilted his head back while closing his eyes. Yup, this day had been going too well, he should have been expecting this. Taking another look around the room, this time he noticed the small now quivering boy who was hanging on Lucius' sleeve, he couldn't help but stare at this picture, because Lucius actually allowed the boy to do so. Severus looked a little more closely at the boy and found that haunted blue-green eyes were looking at him like he was offering the solution to all the boy's problems; little did Severus know that he actually was, at the moment offering just that.

Cornelius finally looked at Severus and imperiously gestured for him to come forward. Severus barely refrained from rolling his eyes at the pudgy little man, but did step forward, pulling out the vial of Veritaserum. "You will be administering the serum to firstly one Sirius Orion Black, followed by one Peter John Pettigrew." Cornelius pedantically droned. Sirius was pushed gently into a chair by Moody, who then backed up and leveled his wand at the man.

Snape this time simply sighed, stepped forward and applied the required three drops to the convicts tongue, and stepped back to watch the man for signs of rejection, after thirty seconds he nodded and Kingsley stepped forward. "Please state your name."

"Sirius Orion Black"

"your current place of residence?"

"Azkaban Prison"

"how old are you?"

"28"

"were you the Potters' secret keeper?"

"No, we changed keepers at the last moment, because we were afraid that they would know to go straight after me, we thought that if we told them it was me but made it someone else we would be able to keep them safe."

"Have you ever worked for or aligned with Lord Voldemort?"

"No, I have not" Moody nodded and stepped forward, releasing all of the chains the now 'ex' convict was wearing. Severus stepped forward reluctantly and dosed him with the anti-serum. Sirius stepped away from the chair he had been in, a sparkle in his eye. He went over the couch and sat on the other side of the small boy who was still staring with a glazed look at Peter.

Peter was bound to the chair given the dose of Veritaserum and hit with an enervate. He came to scrabbling desperately at the arms of the chair. He slowly calmed as the serum worked its way through his system. When he was finally still. Kingsley stepped forward again and asked the standard opening questions. Once those were out of the way he got to the pertinent questions. "Were you the potters' secret keeper?"

"Yes"

"did you betray them to Voldemort?"

"Yes"

"why did you betray them to Voldemort?"

"Because I was jealous of them, they had everything I wanted and took it for granted."

Here Kingsley put a quick muffliato spell on Peter so that he couldn't hear what he said next. He looked at Lucius and Eiri and with an apologetic expression told them "I am going to ask him about the attack and his role in it now…" turning to Lucius, "do you think he should be here for this?" he gestured with his head towards Eiri. Lucius looked Eiri in the eye and asked him quietly if he wanted to go or stay.

Eiri looked up at Lucius and his face became determined. "Stay." He said simply, most of the adults in the room shivered at the silken beauty of the voice that said that one word, and looked at him surprised. Lucius nodded and looking Kingsley in the eye confirmed the boy's decision.

Cornelius spoke up here in protest. "Surely you can't mean that, the boy has been through too much already, why; your wife tried to kill him just this morning!"

Lucius looked at the adults in the room and then did something out of character; he refused to look at them while he spoke. "I don't have as much of a choice as you seem to think I do; he is a full lord in his own right. He is technically emancipated I am only here to basically guide him. He holds a seat on the board of governors, the House of Lords and the wizengamut. I am his guardian; not his legal guardian."

All of the adults gaped at Lucius and then turned their gazes to Eiri. He nodded at them. "I have been trained to my position since birth. And I think that if I could survive what he is about to describe then I also have the right to hear him describe it to people I don't know. I need to know what he says, so that I know how much more needs to be told." The minister and the Aurors looked lost as to how to handle this; apparently a ten year old who was of equal standing to the highest ranked adult here was quite disturbing to them. Snape however gave the boy an appraising glance; the boy's voice was too beautiful, Lucius was protecting him and giving in to his decisions. There was much more to the boy than appeared at first glance. He made a note to see what Albus knew about him later and turned his attention back to the proceedings, he didn't miss much, just the removal of the spell.

Peter quickly told the tale of setting up the half incubus family for death and then told them that the reason was that the family had refused his lord aid in his current form and because of it had died. When asked what he did to Eiri's parents he said that he stunned the father and killed the mother. Then Kingsley asked the big question on the adults mind. "what did you do to the nine year old boy that you captured on that raid?" the rat's face transformed into the slimiest most disgusting lust filled expression they could have imagined on that chubby face.

" I watched as a muggle that I had under Imperio whipped him until his back was covered with blood, then I walked to the front of him and stared into his eyes for a while… you see how beautiful they are now; but that is nothing to how he looked right then. He was innocent; you could see it mingled with the pain in those eyes. He was already naked from the torture so I ran my hand along his spine to gather his blood, and he arched his body into me to escape my touch. I used his blood as lubrication and raped him." He waxed poetic for a few minutes about how tight the boy had been how his screams had sounded and how beautiful he was when he lost his virginity.

He didn't notice the expressions of horror and disgust on the faces of every person present who stared at the little boy curled up between Sirius and Lucius, hiding his face from the room. From there the rat eventually moved on, several times breaking into what was obviously cherished moments of raping the boy, but also describing torture of muggle varieties, breaking multiple bones in the boy and then feeding him skele-grow, and then more muggle tortures while the potion did its job healing the bones. He spent over 4 hours describing the worst that any human could do to another; and obviously felt relish that he had done it to a nine year old boy who had never harmed a being. At some point even Snape could no longer listen to this while hiding his nausea and summoned to him the bucket that all the others had at some point during this confession used to vomit in and allowed his stomach contents to join theirs. A little after this they heard a small whimper from the couch and the attention of all the adults swung from the monster in the chair to the small boy who was curled up so tight that they weren't sure how he was breathing.

He was rocking back and forth and his eyes were glassy, but he made no more sounds; unfortunately he had drawn the attention of Wormtail, whose back had been towards him until that point. When his straining gaze finally caught sight of the small boy he leered at him in a manner that made rage flair in the faces of the other adults. However his greatest mistake was telling the broken boy what he would do the next time he had him in his clutches, he told the boy that he was delicious and belonged only to him.

Now that was bad but not his mistake, no his next line was the mistake. "Perhaps next time I will have your brother join us in our little games…" here he was forced to stop because Cornelius, the most pathetic minister that England had ever had lost his temper and knocked the man out… with his fist.

Every being in that room looked shocked, including Cornelius. With an expression of fury on his face, trying to play down what he had done he went behind his desk and pulled out a paper and quickly filled it out. Turning to the others he stated. "We need the Aurors to sign the lines stating that the Dementors kiss is the only suitable punishment for what this man did, and we need Mr. Black and lord Malfoy to sign as witnesses to Pettigrew's confession. We need to have Eiri there sign out as the complainant so that this will be all aboveboard. We also need Mr. Snape to sign as the potion master that the Veritaserum worked as it was supposed to and that there was no flaw in its performance."

The others all agreed save for Eiri who was still on the couch; after a bit of coaxing from both Lucius and Sirius he finally got up and signed; but immediately afterwards he ran back to the couch and grabbed on to the people on either side of him, dragging them together until he could sit across both their laps and curled into them, quickly falling into a deep sleep. The others watched this and marveled that he had gotten through this as well as he had. Even Moody found a sliver of respect for the child who had survived all that was described and turned out as well as he had.

When they were finished the Aurors were sent with the prisoner to Azkaban and saw to the kiss immediately; the junior Aurors would tell stories for years about the insane laughter that both of them gave off when Peter received the kiss.

Lucius looked at Snape and asked "Severus? Could you drop by the manor in a few hours and bring a few calming potions? Even if Eiri manages to control himself, which he normally does, his brother and Draco will not take this well at all. We have already had a few scares where he is concerned." Severus looked at the boy and agreed. Lucius smiled at his old friend wanly and tried to get up with Eiri, that didn't work out so well, he was clinging tightly to Sirius Black.

He turned to the man who was looking at Eiri with a look of sadness and compassion and made a quick decision. "Mr. Black, since it seems that Eiri trusts you; will you join us at the manor? We would be glad to provide you a room until your house can be re-opened, and you might be able to offer him some comfort." Sirius just nodded silently, still looking at the boy. With some help they all got out of there to the floo hall. Severus went to Hogwarts to get the potions that were requested and tell Albus where he would be for the night. And the others returned to Malfoy Manor.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Draco was wandering through the bookshelves in the library looking for something to distract him. He still found it hard to believe the scene he had witnessed this morning. What his mother had said had hurt him, yes, but the idea that she had tried to kill his new cousin really hit him hard. He had wanted siblings for a long time, but even at only seven years old had resigned himself to being an only child. He would be the first to admit that he hadn't reacted well to his cousins coming to stay with them, but he had quickly gotten over that. He had only met them that morning and already he knew that his cousins were special, or at least Eiri was special. Perry was just nice, and funny.

Perry had fallen asleep about an hour ago; Eiri and his father hadn't returned from the ministry and they had left over six hours ago. He was a little worried. He had asked Perry why they had gone to the ministry when the Aurors had already come to their home about his mother. Perry had looked at him carefully and then sighed; he gave Draco an edited version of what happened to Eiri; what's worse is that Draco knew it was edited, but he understood why it was when he heard the gist of the story.

Draco had read his father's journals; not that the man knew, or ever would if Draco had his way. However it allowed him to understand how hard Eiri must have it right now. If his father had as much trouble being the one to do those types of things to people, then imagine how much harder it must be to be the one it was happening to. Draco finally found a book he was interested in, after hearing about all of the scars that Eiri hid under his clothing; Draco had made the decision that he would become a healer. The book he was looking at currently was discussing pathways through the body that the author called 'chakra' that when Draco read the description of sounded a lot like magic… he decided that he was going to share this book with Eiri, maybe he would be interested too and they could spend some time together learning about this system.

Draco was still on the third page trying to memorize the paths that went through the body an hour later when his father stepped through the flames of the floo holding the limp body of his new cousin. Draco was so focused on his cousin though that he didn't notice the second man coming through the flames. "Father?" Draco called out. Lucius turned to his son and with a tilt of his head ushered him over. Lucius sighed and set Eiri on the couch for the second time that day. In his head he was practically shaking at how good Eiri actually was. He had had them all eating out of his hands. And the memory work that he had done on Pettigrew was amazing; even knowing that he had manipulated memories that were already there it was something that he didn't think he could ever accomplish.

Lucius turned his attention back to his worried son. "Father, what happened to Eiri?" Lucius hesitated; he wasn't sure how much Draco had been told by Perry, so he didn't know quite what to say. Draco saw the hesitation. "Perry told me about some of what happened to them in France, he said he wanted me to understand why they came here, and that he hoped that I wouldn't hate Eiri because of something that was not his fault. So please, dad, what happened to Eiri?" Draco reiterated. Lucius looked his son in the eye and gave him a general answer with none of the overly graphic details from Wormtail. Draco looked at his cousin and nodded. "Dad, I think I should go get Perry, if Eiri wakes up before I get back would you tell him I would like to go over this with him when he's ready?" Draco asked shoving the book at his father. Lucius watched him leave with a stunned expression that transformed into warm pride; just looking at him you could tell he was practically bursting with it.

Sirius had watched this whole scene; where if you had asked him the day before what he thought of Lucius Malfoy he would have told you that he was a cold, evil man, who deserved everything that was dealt to him. He just couldn't help that he felt now that he was wrong then; as he watched Lucius deal with the young ones in his care, he saw a new side to the man; it allowed him a level of comfort that he had previously lacked. Taking a deep breath, which brought Lucius' attention to him he stepped forward and slightly raised an eyebrow. Lucius smiled a little tentatively at Sirius and gave him a detailed 'account' of the events of that morning. Sirius gave a quiet whistle and looked sadly at the boy laid out on the couch. "He's got about the worst look out there, doesn't he?"

Lucius smiled tiredly. "I prefer to think he got all the bad luck out at once; so he's bound to have it better now that he's with us."

Sirius gave him a warm smile. "I think I like yours better." Lucius suddenly seemed to remember something. "Forgive my manners, I allowed myself to get distracted." With a snap of his fingers a house-elf appeared in front of him. "How can Dobby be helping you masters?" was the squeaked question. Lucius told him to prepare a room it the family hall for Sirius black and to see to a few changes of appropriate garb for the lord of the house of black. Taking a moment to look Sirius over he turned back to the elf. "And draw him up a bath, he will no doubt need one, Master Sirius is free to stay here as long as he wants, and every time he stays here you will be assigned his care. Please inform Turky that we will want dinner to be something simple and that it needs to be served here." Dobby looked excited and popped out for a minute; coming back he eagerly led a slightly amused Sirius out of the library and to his new quarters.

Perry was surprised at what had happened once he fell asleep; he had seen everything that had happened in the minister's office. He hadn't seen out of Eiri's eyes exactly, more like he had seen over Eiri's shoulder. He had seen the others' responses to Eiri's acting, and had felt the emotions that Eiri had felt, he had seen memories that he had forced himself to flash to so that he could act out the expected response. He had been amazed and horrified at what Eiri had managed to accomplish in that overdone office. Without actually doing anything big and flashy or saying anything meaningful Eiri had set up a foundation upon which he could build later when he started to create his alliances.

However, he had caused himself some emotional trauma. He lay there on the bed and tried to figure out how he had managed to see such things. He felt a light tug on the edge of his mind and paid it a little more attention, and felt a wave of reassurance, trying to see in his head more clearly, he was interrupted by Draco knocking on the door. Opening it he admitted the young Malfoy into his room. Draco looked up at him and suddenly hugged him.

"Eiri's downstairs, he's sleeping, dad said that he confronted the man who killed your parents and hurt him. We should probably go down; oh, and we have a guest. His name is Sirius Black; he's my cousin too, from my mom's side. Dad says that Eiri likes him. I don't think that dad trusts him yet though." Perry listened to this influx of information and absorbed it rapidly.

Hugging Draco swiftly, he turned him towards the door. "Come on, let's go see to Eiri." Draco smiled up at him and followed him out.

Sirius, as much as he would have liked to linger in the shower, kept it short. He wanted to be there for the kid, Eiri when he woke up. Sirius sighed as he remembered another boy that he needed to find. He knew that Albus would be able to tell him where Harry was, he smiled as he thought of seeing his little godson again. He couldn't wait to see Harry, he remembered when he was just a baby… that boy could melt rooms of people with his smile. He wanted to see that smile again, but he decided that he would wait to see Harry until he could offer him a place to stay. He started to make plans in his head, he would fix up Grimmauld place and then he would offer a place to Harry; he knew that it was possibly, even likely at this point, that he would be turned down, Dumbledore would have put him in with a good family after all, but he wanted to be able to offer it. After all, there was always the chance that it would be accepted. Sirius was still smiling when he left his rooms a few minutes later. Dinner that night was soothing, everyone in the house sat around the fireplace in the library getting to know each other, and they wound up going to bed early, deciding that the day had been long and hard enough. Strangely enough, not one person in the house had nightmares that night, save for Eiri, who had a strong ability to hide them from others. He dreamt of the conversation between Snape and Dumbledore.

COV

Albus was looking pale as he looked at the three men in his office. "so Black was innocent?" snarled Severus. The expression of rage and shock did not blend well to his features. Kingsley looked at him with disinterest. Moody was watching Severus and Albus equally.

Albus took a deep breath and decided that it was now or never. "I'm afraid that I have some rather disturbing news to add to this meeting… it seems that young mister potter and his guardians are missing at this time." Kingsley shot a look at Albus; there was something that bothered him about the timing of this little announcement. Snape stopped ranting over the release of his school time nemesis and looked disbelievingly at Albus. "Precisely what do you mean missing, Albus, an entire family doesn't just go missing." Albus looked at him reproachfully, but before he could reply Moody cut in

"Families have been know to go missing, Snape, just ask your little death eater friends." As Albus watched the two men bicker, he felt a strange sense of relief that their attention wasn't on him, so he missed Kingsley's watchful gaze upon him; there was something that was wrong with this. He would have to find out what it was. Two hours later Dumbledore finally kicked them out of his office, telling the Aurors to start an investigation through the ministry and for Snape to check amongst the death eaters.

COV

Snape was deathly glad that it was Friday; he could go to Lucius' and discuss the issues he had. He doubted that Lucius had had anything to do with the disappearance of the Dursleys, but he had to check all the same. He knew that something was wrong with the way that Albus had announced Potter's disappearance; he just didn't know what it was. He stopped to think for a moment… then he dropped his head in shame that he hadn't realized it before. Albus had stated that Potter was missing only after he heard that Sirius was released. That left several options; the boy was in bad shape and had to be given time to heal before the boys godfather could be allowed access, he had the boy hidden away for training; here he stopped to snort 'as if that boy could ever stand against my lord' but if that was the case, why did he move the whole family? The only other options he could see would be if the family suddenly transferred overseas or if indeed as Dumbledore and Moody hinted, death eaters took them. Severus sighed; he couldn't wait until his last class ended so that he could discuss this with Lucius.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Lucius sighed deeply, he had known that Eiri was powerful when he had accepted the boy; however he had not been aware that that would also translate into physical endurance… and who would have thought that his son would be able to keep up? As he looked around the clothing shop that he and Perry had been dragged into by the boys, he felt grateful that he was getting a chance to sit; he had been dragged around Diagon alley all day by the two boys. It had started at six in the morning, when Eiri had told him that he was going to Gringotts to discuss his companies with the goblins. Lucius had looked at him incredulously and then simply asked him how long it would take him.

The boy had smiled at him and asked if the family could meet with him at ten, he should be finished then. Lucius remembered agreeing and felt a moment of wistfulness as he remembered how warm it had been in his bed. At eight his son had come rushing in worried because Eiri was missing, it had taken Lucius ten minutes to calm him down and then gone back to sleep; just to be woken up 45 minutes later… by Perry worried that his 'brother' had disappeared. Lucius had given up and gotten out of bed.

He had explained the day plan to Draco and Perry, and then they had all sat to breakfast. Once they had eaten they all went to the study and flooed to Gringotts, nearly an hour early; it was lucky they came when they did, as Eiri was just finishing up. Eiri had then dragged them to every store in the alley, often going into backrooms to speak privately with the owners. Lucius didn't mind so much but he was very bored, and by the looks of him, Perry was at least as bored as Lucius. He sighed again.

Eiri looked with amusement at the two 'adults' in the sitting room. He couldn't help but feel that they were adorable with their nearly identical pouts. He muffled a laugh as he dragged Draco over to the opening and pointed them out to the boy. Draco looked at them and started snickering. The boys looked at each other and burst into peals of laughter. When they finished they gathered themselves together and joined the adults in the sitting room.

"We're ready to go." Eiri piped up; holding back a chuckle at the hopeful expression on Lucius' face. "We just have three more stops left." He nearly couldn't restrain himself as Lucius' face fell again. Lucius pulled himself together and inquired.

"Where are these stops?" Eiri smiled.

"We need to stop at Ollivanders, Bourgin and Burkes', and Starways." Lucius gave him an indecipherable look and then nodding, turned and strode to the front door. Eiri nearly laughed as the man muttered. "At least wands shouldn't take too long."

As they walked the distance to Ollivanders' shop he fell into a light trance, remembering how he had felt when he discovered that Ollivander was Dumbledore's man; he had been horrified, as it went against the code of the wandmaker. Wandmakers were to always be neutral; they were never to select a side, because their wands had already chosen both.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Eiri smiled as he pulled Perry along behind him, Draco chattering beside him and Lucius following behind showing only his usual gracefulness and hiding how badly he wanted to just go home and drink brandy in front of his fireplace. Eiri was looking forward to this visit.

As he entered the store at Ollivanders he looked around for the shop owner, who he knew had a love of surprising his customers. Harry and Lucius were the only ones prepared for the surprise appearance of Ollivander… (Perry had received his wand from Germany) Draco unfortunately was very surprised at the sudden appearance of the golden eyed white haired man… so surprised that he threw forward his hands and the fire behind Ollivander jumped up and set the old mans butt on fire.

Ollivander was so surprised at the pain in his rear that he lost his footing, falling head first into a full shelf of wands. Lucius was laughing inside his head, but outside his head he kept a straight face and with a silent Aguamenti, put out the fire.

Ollivander excused himself and returned five minutes later wearing a different set of pants… everyone wisely refrained from saying anything and he quickly began his tape measure on the measurements of Eiri.

Two hours later Eiri was getting very frustrated, he had tried nearly every wand in the shop; including the one he had partnered in his previous life. Finally Ollivander had an idea and brought a dilapidated box from his workroom. Eiri knew before it was even opened that this wand would work for him.

The wand was black and had a yellow eastern dragon detailed on the handle. Ollivander showed a reverent respect as he picked up the wand, slowly presenting the handle to Eiri, who grabbed it in a firm hold and felt an amazing rush from the wand. The entire room became pitch black with sparks like fireworks the same glowing blue-green shade as Eiri's eyes.

As the wave of darkness receded back into the wand a great rush of power came from the wand signifying the bond, knocking the other four off their feet and leaving only Eiri on his.

Later

Perry was sitting in the study with Lucius and Aurelia recounting the adventures of the day with a glass of Firewhiskey. Eiri and Draco were in Draco's room going over that old book he had found.

Black walnut heartstring of the Emperor dragon 12.5" ….


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

Eiri was fiddling with his wand, sitting in the parlor with his Three, while Blaise Zabini helped to keep his little 'cousin' occupied playing outside.

He knew his wand was more than Ollivander had said, Ollivander had claimed that it was heartstring of an imperial dragon… and he could only be grateful that Ollivanders' ancestor had mislabeled that core, it was in reality the heartstring of THE Emperor of Dragons. He knew what this would mean, Ollivander would report what the wands choice would mean about his personality to Dumbledore. To receive an imperial dragons string, it would mean that he was intelligent, loyal, hard working and a protector/soldier type Wizard. It would also mean that he was powerful.

However while in a way all of these traits were accurate, the difference in what the core really was and what Ollivander thought it was would make a large difference. To receive The Emperors string multiplied what his power was by several thousand times. It would also explain that he was by nature both logical and wild, swift to understand the shadow in the shadows, but also swift in making actions. But most importantly, imperial dragons were Generals, strong, loyal, effective… and followers. However being of the Emperor, he was a natural leader.

Eiri loved the expressions upon the faces of his three when he explained the whole issue to them. Aurelia had given into giggles, Perry had given a solemn nod and Lucius had simply nodded with a pout on his face. After he had explained his wand to them he had given the reason for his explanations.

"You see, Ollivander has pledged his loyalty to Dumbledore, as you know that means that he has broken the wand-makers oath of neutrality. As such when we go to Japan next week, I would like for you three to take the littles to the wand-makers there, so that such vital information is not passed to the fluttering old lemon drop."

Evan had made an amused moue at the name, but had agreed that that was probably the best idea. Aurelia had been swift in her agreement, anything that offered a protection to her son was to be taken advantage of. Lucius hadn't bothered to say anything, giving simply a curt nod.

A moment later he explained his silence as he expounded upon his thought. "I believe that we should all, get new wands while we are there, after all, a backup wand is a good idea, and we could all use an advantage to even the playing field with that particularly meddlesome old man gaining that form of knowledge about us all."

All three had agreed. After another two hours of Lucius replaying the trip to Diagon Alley, Evans curiosity finally got the better of him and he had to ask. "What exactly did you go to all of their back rooms for anyway?" Looking around he saw that he had all of their undivided attention and so answered them.

"I was commissioning several things for this trip… a custom made trunk, that will, upon completion carry the bulk of my fortune, my library and a study, as well as a ritual room and potions area, I was going to add a sparring room but decided that doing it outside would give me better chances in survival and more realistic terrain to train in. It will have a creation room for some of my projects, I am sorry to tell you that this trunk will be off limits for all of you. I also commissioned several bookstores to gather me some rare books that I will need. A jeweler to find me quality gems and metals for me to work with, and a pet shop to find me certain creatures ."

Aurelia, Lucius, and Evan all stared at him for a moment, then just shrugged it off. They spent the rest of the afternoon discussing their plans for Japan. It was after lunch before the adults realized that Eiri had not told them who would be going with him through the well. They were not surprised though that he pointed to Lucius and Aurelia.

Evan was a little sad that he would not be able to go; but he was reminded that he was in charge of keeping the children busy until such time as they returned, which could from this side of the well be anywhere from an hour to several days, on the other side of the well time would be traveling much faster so it could be years there.


End file.
